Reviews: Shute, Nevil

On The Beach —
Nevil Shute

What
better work to celebrate Brexit’s victory than Nevil Shute’s 1957 ode
to the power of collective determination, On
the Beach?

In
1963, the world is at peace. No wars, no riots, no arguments mar the
calm in the Northern Hemisphere. This is because many of the 4700
nuclear weapons detonated during the thirty-seven day war that broke
out in 1962 were cobalt-clad. Bathed in lethal radioisotopes, the
Northern Hemisphere is innocent of life and all its complications.

In
Australian and the other nations of the Southern Hemisphere, life
continues. But only for the moment: lethal fallout is slowly but
inexorably spreading on the winds. Even as the book opens, northern
Australia has been cleansed of life. By September 1963,
everyone—everything—in southern Australia will as dead as the
unfortunates in the north.